


Want of Nourishment

by Fiobri



Series: Eternal Cycle [24]
Category: Toriko (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Escape, Experimentation, Famine - Freeform, Fix-It, Fix-It of Sorts, Gen, Hiding, Human Experimentation, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Malnutrition, Original Character(s), Pre-Canon, Reincarnation, Self-Insert, Starvation, Unethical Experimentation, oc-insert
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-14
Updated: 2021-03-18
Packaged: 2021-03-22 08:47:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30036099
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fiobri/pseuds/Fiobri
Summary: Wolf ears. Fangs. Paws, claws, and white fur. It was clear; she wasn't quite human anymore. That didn't mean she'd abandon starving children, towns, slums... anyone who needed help. Not even if she was slowly starving to death.Cycle 18. Can Cycle, Toriko.
Relationships: Original Character & Komatsu (Toriko), Original Character & Toriko (Toriko)
Series: Eternal Cycle [24]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1314257
Comments: 14
Kudos: 15





	1. From Ice to Ice

**Author's Note:**

> I apparenly have time to publish new Cycle starts while working on the old ones and life. Well, this fandom has too few fics anyway. I hope you enjoy! 
> 
> If you have questions about the series go to [ETERNAL CYCLE: MINDSCAPE](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24874927). Or check the series summary.

She jumped up and up the tight slope with a single-minded focus. Hands and feet blurred together, only thinking of the next place to land and the impossible speeds she was going at. Cold creamy snow burned at her bare hands, the icy wind full of little sweet smelling milk crystals tearing at her hardened skin. 

The lightly colored landscape was blitzing past and making her own white clad figure disappear within it. Just as she wanted. 

She couldn't,  _ wouldn't _ , go back. 

Not now that she'd revealed the proficiency she'd learned away from prying eyes. Far from the showing she had in training where her skills in regenerating damage were the most focused on. 

It was finally enough to  _ get away _ from the horrible place she'd awakened at. 

Yes,  _ awakened _ . Not born. Or maybe born. She didn't have any real memories from  _ before _ she got the immortal's memory. Nari's memory. Her,  _ his _ last life was plain. Playing a board game, Go, of all things that Cycle, making money and charities with it. Alleviating crises, giving people love and homes, listening to their stories. Helping the hurt and grieving deceased move on to the well of constant love they knew dwelled beyond. 

Something Rina was doing this Cycle too. Food Spirits were a thing. 

Rina. It was Rina finally joining her fully and helping her with the Gourmet Cells that made the possibility of getting free actually possible. 

Bishokukai, the Gourmet Corporation, was ruthless in working towards their goals. Including taking a random group of humans and administrating Gourmet Cells in them to get stronger fighters on their side.  _ Battle Wolf  _ Gourmet Cells. 

She supposed they didn't expect the only survivor of Operation Wolf to be so… unruly. Or, more like  _ unwilling.  _

It didn't matter much. She wasn't strong enough to dismantle their operation since they refused to feed her anything that could evolve her Gourmet Cells too much. Both in fear of killing her too soon… or her getting too strong to force their mindset on her, decreasing their chances of getting themselves a good tool. Eventually they probably would have found a way to brainwash her. She gladly said no thanks to  _ that _ . 

Nari burst through a layer of dizzyingly cold clouds towards the top of a ledge where she  _ knew _ a friend was waiting. Someone she'd befriended over the three years she could remember. A Gourmet World animal. An albino tokage she'd named Hikaru, light, in remembrance to her last life. 

One who would give her an escape to the Human World and lay false tracks for the Bishokukai to follow in the Gourmet World. 

She crashed straight into a plume of just gathered cream snow and laughed a little as the being underneath surged upwards to wrap around her in a protective embrace. Her muscles relaxed, her breathing settling, as she gave the affection back the best she was able without being able to move in the half liquid body of her white friend. 

Red pink eyes appeared next to her, sparkling with something light and happy but oh so sad. He wouldn't be able to come with her. He lived in the wild, untamed colder regions of the Gourmet World to avoid getting burned by the multiple scorching places all around Gourmet and Human worlds. Even just constant exposure to sunlight could leave him boiling or burnt and heavy, unable to control his shape or move freely. 

Her ears flicked and tail wagged, hand brushing across the now solid snout of the snake-like morphing creature. He knew her promise. The promise to find a way for him to go see other parts of the world too. 

Hikaru would hold her to that promise. 

Then she was sinking through his liquid body, closing her eyes as she seemed to fall fall  _ fall  _ before- 

She rose out at another place. 

The air had so many new smells, new fragrances, and it was cold but not too cold. Not like the Gourmet World's intense temperatures coupled with unforgiving winds and torrents of storms. 

It was still a sweet smell in the air, a different kind of sweet, a kind she was familiar with from other worlds. 

Ice cream. All kinds of fruity ice creams stacked on top of each other into a wonderful sorbet mountain. She sank to her knees in the vanilla smelling topping. Adrenaline was fading and now she felt weak from the exertion of having done physically taxing things with an empty stomach. Not that she was  _ able _ to eat anything with the cursed black thing covering her mouth. 

So she needed something to drink. Fast. 

Slowly reaching forward she placed her hands to the ground, adjusting her posture to all fours and boosting her Battle Wolf features with Gourmet Cells. Then she gracefully leapt down the mountain and ungracefully crashed to the ground halfway to the bottom. Eyes sharpened and nose twitching to sniff the air, she found her gaze drifting to the trees that had started to appear around the lower part of the mountain. 

Ice lolly trees. She could laugh. Stumbling to her feet like a newborn fawn she pushed herself to the cold sweet treats, trying to figure out which tree had which flavor through smell. She ended up at the bottom of a frozen icicle of a strawberry tree. Reaching up she laid her hands over it and raised their temperature just enough to melt it like a hot butter knife. Cold, sticky liquid fell on her face, ever so slowly trickled between muzzle and skin, before the smallest droplets ended up in her mouth. 

Instantly, flavor exploded in her mouth. 

It was sweet. Oh so sweet and refreshing, a welcome cool addition to her dry mouth. And yet, while the taste was magical compared to the goop she'd been forced to eat back at base, Nari was trembling with want and sorrow. Saltiness got to her lips now too, mixing with the nearly overpowering sweetness. Tears. 

She felt a little bit more energized. A little bit. And like many times before, she stared at the beautiful treat the world had to offer but was unable to eat it. Only get a taste, a fragrance, and nothing more. 

Juice refroze at her feet slowly, building a red tall upside-down icicle. 

She'd perhaps gotten a tea spoonful. 

Far too little to feel  _ full _ , not that she probably ever had, except maybe those first few hazy weeks of consciousness. 

Her body felt tired. Cold was starting to seep in, Gourmet Cells slowing down in face of constant hours long usage. She needed to get out of here or she'd freeze with the icicles. Taking a deep breath she hobbled away from the tree, centered herself on all fours… and disappeared in a flurry of snow and wind. 

xXXx

"Hey.  _ Hey!  _ Wake up!" 

Her ear twitched, mind resisting the pull to wakefulness through the numbing haze of hunger she'd fallen into. It was like her stomach was gnawing and tearing itself for food in its need to get energy in her system. A sensation she'd escaped in her slumber and wasn't happy to return to. 

Unfortunately it was also a very familiar sensation and she knew for sure she wouldn't die to it yet. 

Something poked at her shoulder and she instinctively flinched far away from it, on her feet before her mind processed what was happening. She found herself staring at a brown clad figure with sunken cheeks and a stick, cowering away from her sudden movement. 

Her heart sank. It was a boy about her physical body's age. And he looked as starved as she was but without the Food Appreciation that let her survive absurdly long without sustenance. Another trick she'd learned because she was very rarely allowed to eat the food she captured when with the Bishokukai. Also out of spite, because they considered Food Appreciation users formidable opponents. She'd hidden that talent too in a ploy to gather more strength. It had worked. She was here now, after all. 

"What are you?" the boy asked, voice raspy. 

His dark hair reached his shoulders in messy unbrushed clumps. Eyebags dark and shadowing otherwise bright blue irises. Nari stared back, not knowing how to respond. The muzzle pinned her teeth and lips together. She could only manage hums and grunts and whines. 

The girl looked to the ground and poked a finger into it, drawing in the dirt with precise strokes. She hoped against all hope that he could read. 

A frown appeared on his face, eyebrows scrunching up as he followed the words with his eyes. 

"Ru… Gi.. Girr…" he tried to sound out. "G..I..R..L… Girl. You're a girl, I know that already!  _ What  _ are you? A fox girl?" 

That was… close enough, Nari supposed. So she nodded. She drew another character to see if his reading skills extended to kanji too but had to actually write 'I am Nari' wholly in syllables. Hiragana. She was impressed he got so much of it correctly considering how spotty his knowledge with them was. 

His name was Jeng. He lived in the poor town nearby, close to the jungle but far enough to not have to face gourmet monsters that lived there. They weren't high level ingredients so Gourmet Hunters left the area alone. They were a danger to those venturing in there to even get basic ingredients. He was starving so his little cousins wouldn't have to, and his dad had died doing the same. 

Of course, the 12-year-old didn't explain it with a full adult or educated vocabulary but that's what Nari gained from peering between the lines. 

After he explained and gained some answers to his own questions she stood and gathered some of her faded strength. She patted him on the head and gestured for him to wait. He looked on in confusion as she dropped to all fours and bounded towards the jungle. 

Fifteen minutes later she was back, carrying the corpse of a giant plain chicken over her slim shoulders. They were something under Capture Level 1 but still very hard to catch. The meat was a bit tough no matter how well it was cooked, the only thing gourmet going for it was the juiciness but it needed a ton of spices just to not taste bland. Hence, not a preferred capture ingredient. 

Jeng, having had nothing better to do, had been drawing faces in the dirt until he looked up and gaped at the monstrosity easily hoisted about by the girl a head shorter than him. 

He remembered, once a group of men had gone to capture one because that year had been desperate. His father was among them. Four of seven came back with one missing three fingers and his father blinded in his left eye. They'd managed to capture it but only a third of the meat was edible after all the rough and tumble and the chicken slowly poisoning it's body as a defence mechanism. You needed to kill it fast for it to be edible at all. His father used to talk about animals in the jungle all the time. 

And now Nari was walking back with a beast four men had had to carry so they wouldn't collapse under its weight. Not a speck of its feathers looked dark blue and purple like poison instead of it's natural gray. 

Blue eyes locked with blue. 

Jeng's stomach gurgled. 

Nari nodded towards the town. He stood on shaky legs and started leading her towards his home. 

The girl had made a decision. Even if she couldn't eat things herself she could still make sure other hungry people ate. 

xXXx


	2. To Reach Out

It turned out that Jeng's situation wasn't at all unusual. There were villages, towns, settlements, and slums all around the area she traveled at. The outskirts of cities had crazy food shortages compared to the bustle of the cities, which she'd visited only once when she got a baggy outfit that hid her ears and tail and made her muzzle look like a mask. It took too much energy to force large physical changes for long periods of time by Gourmet Cells. The places she dropped off food at gave the clothes to her once they figured out there was something big and bad hunting her down. She stayed hidden from mostly everyone except Jeng's little town of tight lipped outcasts. 

Thus, her presence was merely rumors of a ghost or animal leaving food to humans in the slums, a mysterious benefactor that smuggled food to those who had none. Only circulating around the poor area, for fear of the offered food being taken away. A good thing because she'd heard rumors of Bishokukai moving around the Gourmet and Human Worlds in a searching pattern, having figured she could be anywhere. 

It led to a lot of traveling on her part, trying to find filling liquid foods to sneak past the too-tight mask and hide from her pursuers. 

By now, it had been four months. She was still unable to find a way to remove the muzzle. And she was getting… worryingly thin. It had never, ever, stayed on longer than missions. Those went from a few hours to a full month. 

This was three times longer. 

She was  _ dying _ . Slowly. 

That was not a thing she could allow to happen yet. She had a promise to fulfill. Hikaru was waiting for her to come get him with a solution, and then go adventuring for the rest of their lives, finding the Plot while at it. 

She knew Jeng and his family, mom and two cousins, were organizing a discreet search for a solution. A way to feed her that didn't need unaffordable or highly dangerous surgical operations that would definitely go on record, then just as inevitably be found by the Bishokukai. 

Nari wished they hadn't been so thorough when creating the muzzle. It dug into her mouth and literally clamped it shut, unable to be taken off without specific Gourmet World tools. 

There was a way, though. There had to be. 

Rina drew her mind in and they started feeling for answers in the world itself. Or more accurately,  _ beyond _ the world. The Cycles many times looked after her. After them. Guided them wherever they couldn't get themselves out of the messes they were in. Or gave them opportunities to do so. 

The Cycles wanted the multiverse to be a better, kinder, more accepting place. It was their job to spread that acceptance, help things go towards it a little smoother. A little better. 

This  _ couldn't  _ be what Nari was here for. Not three years of captivity and four months of freedom and fighting food shortages. 

It was just a nudge. A thought. Felt like it came from within. And Nari felt relief swim in her chest, adrenaline loosening and leaving her to dizzily stand up and rush towards her new destination. She had no idea what she'd find there but it was certain to progress this  _ somehow _ . 

She made it over 100 kilometers before the dizziness became too much. The scenery had changed from wilderness to roads to a rural but kind of rich part of the area. Someplace she'd never been before. She wandered slowly, looking around in a daze, before she bumped into someone and fell to her butt. 

Black hair, slightly spiky, widest eyes she'd seen, a kind and worried look crossing over his face as he took her in. His words tumbled over themselves in her muddled mind as it screamed at her, eyes focusing on the gentle curve of his larger-than-normal nose. 

_ Important! _ her brain screeched.  _ He is important! _

The child part of her still young instincts started uncurling inside her. His eyes  _ shone _ with comfort and reassuring peace and  _ help _ . His hands smelled of ingredients. A chef. A young chef with much passion in his heart. 

Nari reached out a quivering hand and grabbed onto his with a shaky but tight grip. He pulled her up. She stumbled into him as her vision briefly flared white. 

He took her to the side of a building and gently sat her down. Crouching in front of her. 

"Are you alright?" she comprehended a question of his for the first time as he spoke them clearly and slowly. 

She shook her head, not caring how it made her sway dangerously even while sitting. He laid hands on her shoulders, thick brows furrowed in concern. Her nose twitched at the smell of freshly handled meat and vegetables, eyes watering as her stomach heaved for food. For  _ anything at all _ . 

"Where are your parents?"

She stared at him, then shook her head again, slowly but with sad and clear meaning. 

The young man chewed at his lower lip, "Are you comfortable going to an authority figure for help? I could call them here." 

A vicious shake of her head nearly sent her careening to the ground. If it wasn't for his strong grip on her shoulders she would have. He calmed her down by agreeing to not call them. 

"Can I ask why?"

Her frustration probably showed through her eyes alone. She fingered the black fabric covering the muzzle. Then forcefully pulled it down, willing him to understand. His already wide eyes widened further, looking down at the black  _ thing _ and not understanding what he was seeing. 

"Wh- Wha…?" he stammered, looking at the offending thing with slowly dawning horror. "Is- Does that block you from.. from speaking!?" 

A slow nod. The horrified look turned disgusted and slightly angry, but also determined. It wasn't directed at her. 

"Who would  _ do  _ this?" he muttered furiously under his breath as his wavering hand gingerly touched the side of the reinforced material. 

She mimed writing into the air. He startled out of his sad and dark thoughts and took out what was clearly a shopping list and a highlighter. He handed them to her carefully. Nari had to stop her hands from shaking as she wrote down the key pieces of information. 

' _ held captive = experiment and asset, escaped, organization big and dangerous = operatives may be in government, can't take muzzle off = can't eat' _

The youth's eyes widened the further he read until his head whipped up to look at her clammy and pale skin in a new light, sunken cheeks and sharp cheekbones where baby fat should've been, almost bony fingers and dark eye bags… His eyes watered. 

"H- How…? Can you drink? How long have you- without-? Has it stunted your growth!?" 

She watched in confused fondness and vindictive relief as the first person she could  _ talk _ to felt the emotions she hadn't allowed herself to feel yet  _ for _ her. It was therapeutic. 

_ 'I'm Nari. Can drink droplets. You're a chef. Can you help?'  _

Her earnest, pleading eyes turned to the sniffling chef who quickly dried his to see what she wrote. What he found just made him carefully hug her close and start quietly bawling. 

"M-My name iz G- Komatsu, N-Nari-zan!" he got out. "I'll d- do the b-best I gan!" 

She blinked, tried to think of  _ when  _ she'd been hugged by another human before this and failed to come up with an instance this life. She got some hair ruffles with Jeng's family but that… that was it. Her body quivered, hands coming up to circle Komatsu as an involuntary hum of distress left her throat. 

He interpreted this as a sign to pull himself together and he dried his tears before standing up with her in tow. He was short for a human male but a severely malnourished 10-year-old was easy enough to carry. Then they began the game of hide and seek from prying eyes. Nari expertly nudged him to best hiding spots in some of the market crowd around the edge of the rural/modern blend of a landscape. He murmured reassurances and ideas as he worked on the dilemma of the muzzle, adding and discarding ingredients from a mental list. 

Inexplicably, she felt  _ relaxed  _ in the arms of this stranger. Her brain slowed down, grip growing lax, breathing evening as she sluggishly struggled to stay awake. She finally gave up. What was the harm in dozing off? Nobody would recognize her with her hat and hood on, head tucked to the crook of a young man's neck. 

xXXx

She snapped out of her light doze when they were nearing the gates of a prestigious Gourmet Academy. She wiggled a little to be let down as adrenaline made her brain  _ work _ again. Her eyes tracked the premises for a second before a suitable route settled in her mind. 

Nari dug the former shopping list out and wrote that she could get in undetected if he went to his dorms normally. 

Komatsu looked skeptical. He looked at the security cameras at the gate, at the decorated scales of a lightning whale covering the top of the fence. She huffed through her nose and pulled at her hood, wiggling her ears beneath her hat to show him, pointing at the words 'experiment' and 'asset' in turn. It made Komatsu's eyes light up in some form of realization as he reluctantly nodded and let her go off alone. 

...Now that she thought of it, he probably thought she was older than she was physically due to her advanced vocabulary. Not that he was  _ wrong  _ to think that. 

She quickly activated her Gourmet Cells, something she'd been avoiding for the hunger it caused, and  _ zipped _ up the gate and into the small garden beyond. Komatsu got through the gate with ease and opened the automatic main door with his key. Nari bounded over,  _ dashing _ through the upper side of the door with enough speed to not be seen, and climbed along the ceiling with care to not leave dents. Her arms supported her weight since the boots were useless at allowing her toenails to help. They were still helpful at staying as small as possible  _ on  _ the ceiling. She slowed down when no people seemed to be around. 

Komatsu was gaping up at her. She tilted her head at him to get him moving to where he could hopefully hide her. 

They moved along easily enough, Komatsu walking at a fast pace and Nari following while blitzing through the places with people or cameras turning her way. After endless turns they ended up at Komatsu's dorm room. He opened it and let Nari through before pulling himself in too. He sighed in relief and slid down the door to sit. 

"That was  _ intense _ . You alright, Nari-san?" 

Nari dropped in front of him and promptly let herself collapse, Gourmet Cells deactivated for  _ survival _ . She breathed heavily through her nose and clung on to Komatsu when he moved to roll her over, panicked. His movements were frantic but gentle as he picked her up and deposited her on his bed. 

"Um.  _ Um.  _ How do you drink? Could… hmm… I'll be right back! I promise!" 

She let him go, eyes fluttering shut, exhaustion taking over. At least… she was safe. With Komatsu's kindness. She felt her consciousness fade but couldn't bring herself to mind. 

xXXx

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Meeting Komatsu, apparently. She'll be alright.. eventually.


	3. From Cracked to Whole

Nari wasn't fully roused until someone lifted her head to prop her up more comfortably on a bunch of pillows. Everything felt so soft compared to anywhere else she'd slept this life. Almost uncomfortably soft. She slowly blinked and swiveled her head to see Komatsu… with a milk tank. A sweet coconut camel's milk. Perfect for long-term malnourishment. Her mouth felt like watering but remained dry as a desert. 

"How does this…  _ mask _ work?" Komatsu asked after a bit and gave her a notebook and a black pen. 

She was so glad he asked. It'd been used and refitted so often she knew it inside and out. So instead of writing the description she  _ drew _ it with detailed notes on how the thing kept her lips from opening more than a fraction, her teeth clamped together from the inside of her mouth, wrapped around her canines and jaw without piercing anything. How the plate at the center of the mask needed to be removed to release the clamp and the complex lock at the nape of her neck opened and got removed with a common Gourmet World creature's smallest bone-made-key. 

The more she drew and wrote on the page the more solemn and angry Komatsu looked. When she got to the  _ last _ detail he paled, rapidly, and frowned with extreme worry. Gourmet World was a  _ legend  _ to people in the Human World. They knew  _ of  _ it but didn't know anything there unless IGO released the information, which it did yearly but rarely amounted to anything but a page or two of Gourmet World findings in the Human World or an ever expansive sheet of known dangers at the edge of it. There was also the public list of Bishokuya, Gourmet Hunters, who had gone out there and died. 

And now Komatsu was with a girl who had been experimented on by a group who had access to  _ Gourmet World monsters.  _

That implied _a_ _lot._ As he was told, there might be operatives up in the governments and IGO. 

He shook his head to rid himself of those thoughts to focus on the matter at hand. The picture was detailed and of a quality nobody would expect from someone who looked as young as Nari did. He brought up a few of the more exotic cooking tools in his classes' set and connected the best one to the tube coming out of the tank. 

"Okay. This-", he showed her the bendable, strong, and thin hollow nozzle that was usually used to insert liquid to the center of a food item, "-will act as a straw for you. We'll get it to your mouth by wiggling it between the mask and turning the crooked tip between your lips. Does that sound fine?" 

Nari nodded, dazed as she realized he  _ had a solution _ to her greatest problem. He smiled reassuringly and told her he'd practiced with a meat lettuce and coconut camel's hump beforehand. 

She let him position her head and star slowly but gently working the almost needle thin nozzle between the 'mask' and her skin. It felt very weird. Nothing else had touched her cheeks in months. And now the straw was inching over towards her lips. 

The operation took around five minutes. Komatsu's hands were steady and he was exact in moving the nozzle. It went farther within a millimeter's margin of error. He had clearly practiced beforehand. She felt touched for the consideration and care. At the end he asked if she felt the nozzle's tip was at the edge between her lips. She hummed an affirmative. So he firmly but gently twisted the curved tip into her mouth. She immediately sucked inwards. 

Flavor hit her tongue and she realized she'd started crying as she could  _ get more and more _ without having to let gallons of liquid hit her face first or immerse herself underwater. Komatsu was crying with her and petting her hair and ears which had somehow been exposed along the line. She closed her eyes and drank with the greediness of a newborn puppy, drawing in the sweet relief for as long as it lasted. 

Her Gourmet Cells metabolized the drink almost as soon as she drank it. She wasn't surprised. Her throat and mouth felt much less parched. Her body was repairing itself with every swallow. 

By the time she'd drank half of the tank she felt her body relax and slowed down. 

Her hand searched for Komatsu's and found it, squeezing it thankfully. He squeezed back. She stopped once she felt like she'd puke if she drank further. Her body was lax, tired, much more _healthy_ than she'd felt in months. 

She let out a contented hum and slipped towards unconsciousness, breathing slowing and deepening into sleep. 

xXXx

"Koma-aaaah!?" 

Nari awakened to a very surprised,  _ very _ confused voice. She let her eyes open a fraction and saw a light brown haired young man standing at the doorway, gaping at her and Komatsu. Komatsu, who had fallen asleep in the chair beside the bed, drooling a little on his shoulder. 

His brows furrowed, eyes scrunching a little as he woke up too. 

"Take-chan?" the chef in training mumbled as he rubbed his eyes and registered how stiff his neck felt. 

"Wha- Komatsu, why is there a  _ kid _ in your room?" 

The kid in question had started drinking more coconut camel milk as she gave the newcomer a small wave. 

"Oh! Nari-san, are you alright? Can I make you breakfast?" Komatsu was fully awake now, staring worriedly at the girl. 

Nari waved him off and pointed at the muzzle and the slowly emptying tank. 

"Ah. Right… Hmm…", the cook gained a thoughtful expression. 

Just then there was a new arrival. 

"Eh? Koma-chan, why is there a little girl in your bed?"

The amount of people who now knew what she looked like, minus the ears hiding under the hat Komatsu had apparently put on again, wasn't ideal here. Things would get  _ complicated _ if word got out. She quickly turned pleading eyes to a now profusely embarrassed Komatsu. 

"Uh, I can explain!" he waved his hands in emphasis. "Just lock the door, please. This is  _ sensitive _ information!" 

The three cooks gathered around the bed and Komatsu took out the writings and drawing Nari had made yesterday. Then he gave the girl a notebook which she gratefully accepted. 

"Take-chan, Ume-chan, this is Nari-san. Nari-san, my friends Otake and Nakaume", Komatsu introduced. "Nari-san is, well… look. This  _ needs _ to be discreet. Otherwise…" 

Nakaume and Otake shared a concerned look before reading the writings more thoroughly. You could clearly see when they read the first sentence after the shopping list by the way their confusion sharpened into something of a dawning horror. The detailed drawing of the muzzle made it sink in further, the writings on the paper indicating a terrifying truth. 

"...What  _ is  _ this?" Otake hissed, trying to frantically make sense of what he'd been shown. 

"From what I understood, Nari-san has escaped human experimentation from a high class facility with good enough connections to get  _ Gourmet World monsters _ ", Komatsu explained, voice growing tighter at the end. "She can't speak or eat because of that- that  _ muzzle _ and is severely malnourished since it's impossible to get off."

Nakaume was pale as a sheet as he stared at the papers before him, "And you can't go to the government since people high up in the government may very well be  _ in on it. _ " 

Otake's hands trembled, face twisted into a mask of rage. The paper crumpled slightly in his hand. 

"This is  _ unacceptable! _ No one should be- They called her an  _ asset? _ IGO might  _ know about this!? _ " 

His voice kept rising. Nari reached over and touched his shoulder gently. His eyes snapped to her blue ones. Otake's were full of betrayal, a downturn twist to his whole disposition. Nari's were steady and gentle. Understanding. 

_ 'I will get to them later. Some IGO officials might be in on it but we have no way of knowing who yet. Right now I need to hide and find a way to survive', _ she had written. The last question was slightly shaky, like she'd contemplated not adding it.  _ 'Would you three help me do that?' _

The chefs in training read the paper over. Komatsu's eyes welled with tears. Nakaume seemed close to it. Otake was impassively concerned. 

"Of course, Nari-san. I'll help however I can!" Komatsu promised, wiping at his eyes. 

Nari's eyes lit up, beaming at the chef. She reached over to once again squeeze his hand in thanks. 

"...Me too", Nakaume spoke up, determination shining in his voice. "This is  _ serious _ . If I can help even a little bit… I will." 

The girl felt her own tears gather, quickly scribbling a thank you in the notebook. Otake was silent, mulishly staring at the evidence of the muzzle's reality. At the papers. At Nari. The anger had simmered down to burning embers in the background. 

"How much do you know about these guys?" the chef asked. 

The girl blinked tears away to focus on the question, contemplating on how much to tell them. What could put them in further danger. How much would be too much. In the end she just started writing. 

_ 'A lot. But this information is dangerous. For all of our sakes, stay  _ quiet _ about it. If you'd rather not have it you can leave the room' _ , Nari insisted on the last point and waited for a verbal agreement to see what she had from everyone. 

What she wrote next made all of them pale at first, then gasp in shock. 

_ 'The organization is called Bishokukai. Their goal is to control all of the world's ingredients and build a Gourmet Empire. They want the ingredient called 'GOD' as it's epicenter.' _

GOD could appear in the next few years. And while the legendary ingredient had stopped a war last time it was cooked… this time it could very well spark a new one. Especially with this organization hunting for it. 

They had stumbled across something  _ big _ . 

Much too big to leave alone. Otake too was in. 

After all, his dream was to one day cook GOD. And this organization could threaten that dream and all the three cooks stood for. 

xXXx

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nari recovering and three chefs-in-training finding out about things way above their pay-grade.


End file.
